TAMPA — Ryan McDonagh played his last game with the Rangers on Feb. 7 against Boston, one he described afterward as "one of the worst games of my career and one of the worst games I've ever been a part of in my Rangers career." The next day, Rangers management announced it would rebuild the roster.

For two-and-a-half weeks, McDonagh not only had to handle the potential of being traded but do so without having hockey as an escape.

"That made it harder, right? Not that it was super hard, but it was hard not to think about it," McDonagh told the Daily News Wednesday. "I couldn't even pass five, six hours of my day playing on the ice. So finally when it was getting close to the deadline, you were just anxious to see where you were gonna end up."

He ended up with the Cup-contending Lightning, but because of a right hand injury suffered two weeks before that Feb. 7 game, he's not yet ready to return and therefore won't play against the Rangers here Thursday night.

It'll still be weird, McDonagh said, seeing the Rangers play so soon after the trade. Ditto for J.T. Miller, who said it'll be even weirder when he returns to the Garden on March 30, the Blueshirts' final home game of the season.

Ryan McDonagh spent his finals weeks with the Rangers bracing for a trade.

(Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

They're both getting settled in now a week-and-a-half after the deadline deal. Because of the Rangers' Declaration of Reconstruction, the trade didn't catch McDonagh off guard, but he was overcome with a concoction of different feelings.

"Obviously I wasn't shocked or ambushed, so to speak. But certainly when it finally does go through, a lot of emotions obviously, remembering all the seasons and players you played with and what it meant to put on that jersey and stuff," McDonagh said. "Guys get traded at one point in their career during the deadline or during the summer, but how many guys can say they get traded to the top team in the league at that point? And a team that you're somewhat familiar with, and an added bonus when you have a handful of familiar faces here too to help with an easy transition."

Those faces are the previous Ranger captain Ryan Callahan, McDonagh's longtime defensive partner Dan Girardi and Anton Stralman. And of course Miller, who's glad he has someone to go through this with. "Absolutely," Miller said. "It would've been probably a little scary."

While McDonagh was at home on Feb. 26 when he got the news, Miller was playing cards on the Rangers' team plane to Vancouver when Glen Sather informed him. "It was pretty crazy. I heard rumors and the possibility of a trade, but we were all under the impression that it probably wasn't gonna happen," Miller said. "When it happened on the plane, nobody on the plane could believe it."

J.T. Miller was caught off-guard by his trade.

(Chris O'Meara/AP)

It all happened so fast, but the excitement of a Stanley Cup chase has begun to take over. Miller has five points in four games since the trade and has traits Lightning coach Jon Cooper feels his team lacked and will be important in the playoffs.

McDonagh, though, is the man who can perhaps bring the Lightning over the hump after thinking he'd forever be a Ranger when named captain on Oct. 6, 2014.

"When I was named captain there, I felt like I was gonna spend my whole career there like a lot of guys do that come up in the system," McDonagh said. "Formed a lot of strong relationships, been a big piece of their team, but that's the way the game goes. You never know how teams are gonna go up and down or what direction they're gonna go in. We've had guys we traded for, big-name pieces leave their franchises — Marty St. Louis, Eric Staal. It's not like it's uncommon, but at the same time you feel real attached and a part of that team.